Ethnic Embroidery

Embroidery, as a folk art with a long tradition, has an important position in the history of Chinese arts and crafts. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful crafts. Commonly known as “xiuhua”(embroidering flowers) in China, embroidery is cloth decorated with needlework and it is performed by using needle and colored thread (silk, cloth with soft nap, and thread) to prick and stitch fabrics including silk, satin, yarn, cloth, hemp and goatskin, etc. thus forming patterns or characters on the basis of embroidered trace. It has become one of intangible cultural heritages in China. There are ethnic group embroidery styles, like Yi, Miao, Bai, Zhuang and Tibetan. Among them, Yi embroidery is most famous.

Yi Embroidery

Yi embroidery has a long history dating back over 2,000 years, and has been included in China’s list of intangible national cultural heritages since June 2008. In Yi embroidery, landscapes and animals are common subjects, and flowers, birds, fish and insects are the most representative designs characterized by rich changes in the layering of the colors and the high sense of painting. The embroidery reflects Yi people’s aesthetics, their worship for nature and different local cultures. Yi embroidery conveys Chinese historical civilization and ancient information.

Bai Embroidery

Embroidery and dyeing skill, known as “skein tie” in the ancient time, is a kind of old textile dyeing workmanship in China which is named knot cloth in Dali. As it is mainly produced in Dali and most of the dyers are the people of Bai ethnic group, it is also called Dali Embroidery and Dyeing or Bai Nationality Embroidery and Dyeing. In Zhoucheng Village in Dali City of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture and Taicang and Miaojie in Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County, this traditional skill is still preserved, and the industry of embroidery and dyeing in Zhoucheng is most famous so it is awarded the title of “The Hometown of National Embroidery and Dyeing”. There are many different kinds of Bai embroidery and dyeing products, and most of their patterns are natural dermatoglyphic patterns in even arrangement expressing the auspiciousness meaning. 

Miao Embroidery

Miao embroidery is a very essential part of Miao culture and a treasure of Chinese costume culture. It was named as China’s intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Miao embroidery involves several different unique and complex stitches that give it a special look, very different from traditional Han Chinese embroidery. The most common stitch is the “satin stitch,” which gives a shimmery effect from tightly woven threads of the same color. Elaborate geometric cross-stitch patterns are also common. The braid-stitch is a difficult stitch that is achieved by braiding different colored threads together and affixing them to a background in various patterns. Different stitches have different purposes, depending on the formality of the clothing and the function of the item.

Zhuang Embroidery

There are different types of hats for Zhuang people. For example, Children’s tiger hat, the flower hat, the swallowtail hat, and the crescent hat. They are all embroidered by needle and silk. Some other living goods such as bedding bag, pillow towel, antependium, curtain, handkerchief, as well as lucid ganoderma shoes, all need to embroider grass and ornament on it. Embroidery is made by crewel needle and thread silk yarn. Zhuang people will also do shadow work embroidery. It needs to use hollow needle and cross line. The most famous embroidery of Zhuang people is shadow work belt, Children’s carpet and Ganoderma lucidum shoes. There are thousands of patterns of the embroidery. Such as Carp paddle, the phoenix toward peony, prosperity brought by the dragon and the phoenix, Unicorn sending child and so on. A piece of common cloth, after some embroidery processing, will become an exquisite art craft.